What does caesura mean?
A caesura is a deliberate pause or break within a line of poetry, usually falling near its middle and dividing the line into two rhythmic parts. The term comes from Latin caedere, meaning 'to cut', so each caesura can be thought of as a cut made in the fabric of verse. In classical Greek and Latin poetry, the caesura occupied a fixed position dictated by the meter, as in the dactylic hexameter of Homer and Virgil; in English verse it appears more flexibly, shaped by syntax, punctuation, and phrasing. Critics distinguish types such as masculine caesura (following a stressed syllable) and feminine caesura (following an unstressed one). Beyond poetry, caesura is applied by extension to pauses in music, rhetoric, and even historical or political narratives. It is chiefly a term of literary and academic discourse, prized for describing precisely how poets control rhythm through silence rather than sound.
nounA break or pause in a line of verse, typically occurring near its middle, marking a rhythmic division between two parts of the same metrical foot or between feet. By extension, any distinct pause or break in speech, music, or prose.
- In prosody: a natural pause or break, usually near the middle of a line of verse, dividing it rhythmically.
- More generally: any pause or break in speech, prose, music, or narrative flow.
"The poet placed the caesura after the fourth syllable, splitting the line into two balanced halves."
"Homer's epic lines are traditionally divided by a strong caesura near their midpoint."
"The speaker's unexpected caesura — a long, silent pause before the final word — gave her sentence dramatic weight."
Both plurals are correct; 'caesuras' follows normal English pluralization and is more common, while the Latin-style 'caesurae' persists in scholarly writing.
"The critic noted how Milton varies his caesuras to keep the blank verse from becoming monotonous."
The word 'caesura' literally means 'a cutting' — every pause in a poem is, etymologically speaking, a small act of scission carved into the verse.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of caesura
Caesura derives from the Latin noun caesura, meaning 'a cutting' or 'hewing', formed from the past-participle stem of caedere ('to cut down'). It was adopted into English in the mid-16th century, initially in learned discussion of classical metrics before broadening to describe pauses generally. The word shares its root with a family of English terms built on caedere and its compounds, including decide, decision, concise, incisive, precise, and scissors (via related forms). Its original Latinized plural caesurae survives alongside the anglicized caesuras.
Related word forms
How caesura is actually used
Caesura is primarily a technical term in prosody and literary criticism, so it belongs to formal and academic registers rather than everyday conversation. It is also encountered in discussions of music and rhetoric to describe deliberate pauses. The plural may be written either 'caesuras' (anglicized) or 'caesurae' (Latinized); both are accepted, with the anglicized form more common in general writing.
Easily confused with caesura
Cesura is simply an older spelling variant of the same word; modern English overwhelmingly uses 'caesura'.
Enjambment is the running of grammatical sense across a line break without pause, whereas caesura is a deliberate pause within a single line.